High Sierra Topix

Hey guys,

I just joined this forum, and this is my first post here. I and a couple of friends (no pets) are hoping to do a backpacking trip over the coming Memorial Day weekend. I searched the forum quite a bit but didn't quite find exactly what I was looking for. Here are a few things about us:

We have a reasonable amount of hiking experience but extremely little backpacking experience. All of us have done quite a few ~10-mile-long (out and back) hikes with around 2.5k ft elevation gain within a day quite comfortably. I have camped overnight in a Yosemite campground once, and that's my only outdoor overnight experience. One of my friends has done a guided 2-day backpacking trip in the Indian Himalayas (she's the most experienced of us). We are all in our mid-20s and are reasonably fit (can comfortably run a 10K within an hour). The only snow hiking experience we have is a 6-mile out-and-back trail in RMNP, where the snow was shin-deep for the most part. In summary, we can handle ourselves comfortably on day hikes and are very eager to try backpacking.

To be specific, we plan to start hiking early in the morning on Saturday, 24th May, and hike for 2 days (2 nights camping) such that we start driving back by Monday (26th May) afternoon.

We prefer out-and-back / loop trails, and are okay with either the Western or Eastern Sierra start. We just want to hike and camp at some scenic spots. Lakes would be preferable camping spots (don't intend to fish). So far, we have the following on our shortlist, although we are not quite sure if the conditions will be relatively snow-free.
1. Bubbs Creek to Charlotte Lake.
2. Onion Valley campground to Charlotte Lake via Kearsarge Pass.
As far as I have read so far, the trails would need to be less than 8K ft for them to be snow-free?

It would be super helpful if we could get recommendations for routes/trails that we could try out. I am also trying to learn how and where to look at topo maps and figure out the amount of snow by looking at satellite images.
Any recommendations or advice are greatly appreciated!!

In my opinion, Charlotte Lake is not a worthy destination. As well as really too far for your first overnight. I was there last summer for my first time and was very disappointed. There is camping along Bubbs Creek that is more spectacular. It may be quite hard to get a Bubbs Creek permit on Memorial Day- I bet they are all taken. Is there a reason you want to do a SEKI trailhead?

The classic early season Sierra hike is at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park. The hike around the lake to camping areas along Rancheria Creek below Rancheria Falls (a series of cascades) is about 7 miles, with up and down probably totalling about 1000 feet elevation gain. The reservoir is at 4000 feet elevation, so no snow. It's sad to look at the drowned valley, but the granite cliffs are impressive and so is Wapama Falls. Apparently, a new bridge has been constructed over Falls Creek just below Wapama Falls that eliminates the "overflow" problem - the creek used to flow over the old bridge during peak snowmelt, making it exceedingly dangerous to cross (there have been deaths from people swept away). The new bridge should eliminate that problem. If the snow higher up is melted enough by Memorial Day, a lot of people make a loop by continuing beyond Rancheria Creek on the trail up to Lake Vernon at 6500 feet, and then returning on a westerly trail back to the reservoir. The trailhead is called Rancheria Falls in the Yosemite Wilderness Permits section of recreation.gov. It has a quota of 35 people per day. 21 spots are reservable in advance and are already fully reserved for the Memorial Day weekend. 14 more spots will be released on recreation.gov exactly one week in advance at 7 am Pacific time. So, those 14 permits to enter on Saturday May 24 will be released on Saturday May 17. Be logged into your account on recreation.gov before 7 am and hit the refresh key at exactly 7 and you may get some of those permits!
-Phil

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Thu May 01, 2025 8:30 pm In my opinion, Charlotte Lake is not a worthy destination. As well as really too far for your first overnight. I was there last summer for my first time and was very disappointed. There is camping along Bubbs Creek that is more spectacular. It may be quite hard to get a Bubbs Creek permit on Memorial Day- I bet they are all taken. Is there a reason you want to do a SEKI trailhead?

Thanks a lot for your reply! I saw that there are 4 passes available for Bubbs creek when I checked earlier today. Which campsites along Bubbs creek are better you reckon?

And we just thought of SEKI because we haven't been there yet, but that isn't a necessity for us. We are open to any and all suggestions.

My first preference was the Paradise valley trail in SEKI, but it's passes are sold out.

wildhiker wrote: ↑Thu May 01, 2025 10:35 pm The classic early season Sierra hike is at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park. The hike around the lake to camping areas along Rancheria Creek below Rancheria Falls (a series of cascades) is about 7 miles, with up and down probably totalling about 1000 feet elevation gain. The reservoir is at 4000 feet elevation, so no snow. It's sad to look at the drowned valley, but the granite cliffs are impressive and so is Wapama Falls. Apparently, a new bridge has been constructed over Falls Creek just below Wapama Falls that eliminates the "overflow" problem - the creek used to flow over the old bridge during peak snowmelt, making it exceedingly dangerous to cross (there have been deaths from people swept away). The new bridge should eliminate that problem. If the snow higher up is melted enough by Memorial Day, a lot of people make a loop by continuing beyond Rancheria Creek on the trail up to Lake Vernon at 6500 feet, and then returning on a westerly trail back to the reservoir. The trailhead is called Rancheria Falls in the Yosemite Wilderness Permits section of recreation.gov. It has a quota of 35 people per day. 21 spots are reservable in advance and are already fully reserved for the Memorial Day weekend. 14 more spots will be released on recreation.gov exactly one week in advance at 7 am Pacific time. So, those 14 permits to enter on Saturday May 24 will be released on Saturday May 17. Be logged into your account on recreation.gov before 7 am and hit the refresh key at exactly 7 and you may get some of those permits!
-Phil

Thanks a lot for the recommendation! Lake Vernon loop does look interesting. I have been to Hetch Hetchy before and enjoyed it a lot, so it is quite tempting! Hope I get lucky with the tickets.

Why so early in the year? That really limits your trip to low elevation to avoid snow.

I think Charlotte Lake is too high an elevation (10,370), and as Daisy said, it is just not a worthy destination, scenery-wise.

Dealing with the permit reservation system is a pain, but you will figure it out after a season or two.

Beginners can walk on snow :P. They probably just don't want it steep or miles of it.

Of the choices you gave, Kearsarge Pass is *maybe* do-able Memorial Day, but you'll certainly walk on some snow and get your feet wet. The trail itself is on south facing terrain, but there are a couple steep problem spots.

The North fork of Big Pine Creek or Ediza Lake/Thousand Island are accessible early season, but you will walk on snow and probably a lot of it. They are crowded locations that might be nice with some snow keeping the crowd down, but you'll want to be a well researched newbie. Permits will be hard.

Other Memorial Day lake trips off the top of my head that are more likely snow free: Kennedy Lake, Kibbie Lake, Lake Aloha from Echo Lakes, Ostrander Lake, George Lake via Potter Pass.

karthikey97 wrote: ↑Thu May 01, 2025 5:12 pmI am also trying to learn how and where to look at topo maps and figure out the amount of snow by looking at satellite images.

And somehow I missed this "please teach me to fish, rather than giving me fish" request.

1) Go to a place in Caltopo (or Google Maps) you want to visit. Right click, get the GPS coordinates. For example, let's use 3rd lake on the North Fork of Big Pine creek: 37.1224, -118.4949

2) Go to Copernicus browser. Paste the coordinates into the search bar and zoom in a crap ton.

3) Click the green "show latest date" to see what it looks like now-ish. Go back to previous years, like Memorial Day 2024 to see what you're up against. You can see there's minimal snow up until ~Fifth lake.

[url]Welcome to our community Kathy. Reads like you are driving from the south part of the state. You are likely to be disappointed with Sierra Nevada usual destination options. If not already, become familiar with these online resources that are better accessed for planning purposes via desktop/laptops versus smartphones.

For maps: https://caltopo.com/
For best historical satellite views via downloaded application : Google Earth and especially its "Show historical Imagery tab from which one may locate images in month of interest.
For current satellite views estimating snow levels: https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/

Most trailheads will still be under snow much less popular natural lakes because lakes tend to be in high country glaciated areas, not down at lower forested elevations open even by mid June. Additionally, scenic views may be limited and mosquitoes may be active. The last available non-clouded image is back on April 20. One will need to gauge how that might open up more by May 24.

The first issue you will need to overcome is to register an account within, then obtain an available backpacking wilderness permit via recreation dot gov that are not already reserve filled. Thus anyone providing help for others ought start by looking at what is currently open lest they provide ideas that are a poor gamble that groups may end up with nothing driving about in holiday crowded front country. Although there are short advance and walk-up permits, any popular trailheads are also likely to have many groups queued up to snatch any if they become available.

Looking at that today, I can see many are in Not Yet Released ( NR ) status including Kearsarge because that area still under snow and are expected to remain so at least well into June. One will quickly see, very little is available for Yosemite NP or Inyo NF and what is will be down in dense forest. Some permits for likely open destinations like Kibble Lake, Lake Eleanor are not under online recreation dot gov like Stanislaus NF and Sequoia NF thus require phone calls even to understand if they have quotas, much less if any are still available or if destinations.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/r05/sequoia/permits

In the date entry field instead of your intended entry date would advise using Thursday 5/22 to better understand how other groups have already used the strategy of needing to start a day earlier. Even though you may have 4 people in the Group Member field, use 1 just to gauge popularity. Another item that would assist help is noting the kind of vehicle(s) your group will use to reach trailheads as most of those still open on Saturday are 4WD or high clearance.

Being new to the game, I would avoid recommendations of spending most of your time hiking all day and rather just a few hours leaving time to make camp and deal with all your gear and that facet of the experience. Additionally even the fittest trail hiking persons may have gear issues like sore shoulders or feet that are better met conservatively. Once at a camp, there are usually plenty of nearby places to explore and enjoy.

Given limitations, here is a recommendation I advised as this non permit idea with superb scenery, likely no others nearby, and hiking on 4WD roads, that most folks will ignore because they have lakeitis, the trail/route is odd, and they expect to hike on a trail, not a dirt 4WD road.

viewtopic.php?p=187918#p187918

c9h13no3 wrote: ↑Fri May 02, 2025 8:27 am Beginners can walk on snow :P. They probably just don't want it steep or miles of it.

Of the choices you gave, Kearsarge Pass is *maybe* do-able Memorial Day, but you'll certainly walk on some snow and get your feet wet. The trail itself is on south facing terrain, but there are a couple steep problem spots.

Yeah! We are okay with walking on a bit of snow, as we have done that before. As long as it is not too much and won't need mountaineering experience, we are okay with it. We'll keep an eye out for passes for sure.